“The beauty of casting your cares to the Lord is that it shows that you trust Him,” said Barbara Arbo. She followed up this statement with Isaiah 30:18 – “The Lord longs for those who look to Him”. Our heart is His desire and our trust in Him, a prized possession. Mrs. Arbo continued by boldly declaring her next point: “The fact is, we are born into this world with nothing and once we leave we take nothing. The Bible says that every good gift comes from above, so we have nothing on our own.” After that she made this powerful statement: “If we are going to have something to give to others, we must first come to God to receive it”.

Her words stayed with me for sometime that day. Recently, I’ve had to come to a place of honesty with myself. I’ve always wanted to do something for God that was bigger than me and I knew it would require that I grow in many areas of my life. So, in my pursuit of the God-given dreams for my life, I worked hard to grow in these areas- so much that I often forgot why, or rather, Who I was doing them for in the first place. I set my goals and dreams in the place of the God who gave them to me. Just like the Israelites in the Old Testament who turned to worshipping idols of metal and stone and in time, forgot their God. They worshipped the creation, not the creator. In my weakness and frustration I once again realized how much I missed intimacy with God and in His faithfulness He brought me back to Him again.

Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds. -Psalm 36:5-